In May 2015 laws that ban communist and Nazi symbols came into effect in Ukraine.[8] Because of these laws the Ukrainian Interior Ministry stripped the party of its right to participate in elections on 24 July 2015 and it stated it was continuing the court actions (that started in July 2014) to end the registration of Ukraine’s communist parties.[9][10] On 16 December 2015, Kiev District Administrative Court validated the claim of the Ministry of Justice in full, banning the activities of the party in Ukraine.[11][12] On 28 December 2015 the party appealed but on 25 January 2016 the Supreme Administrative Court denied the party in the consideration of the cassation.[4] This resulted in the court's decision to ban the Communist Party of Ukraine did not come into force.[4] However, the 2015 decommunization law contains a norm that allows the Ministry of Justice to prohibit the Communist Party from participating in elections.[4]

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The KPU formally considers itself the direct descendant of the Communist Party of Ukraine, a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which was founded on 5 July 1918 in Moscow.[14] The original communist party existed until 6 November 1991, when the CPSU and its branch in Ukraine were banned.[14] Between 1991 and 1993, several small communist organizations were created throughout Ukraine.[14] "Without clear legality" communists from all over Ukraine convened on 6 March 1993 for the All-Ukrainian Conference for Communists in an attempt to reestablish the KPU.[15] In reaction the Verkhovna Rada, two months later, legalized the establishment of communist parties.[15] On 19 June 1993, the 1st Congress of the newly founded KPU was convened—officially it was designated as the 29th Congress, to denote it as a direct successor to the Soviet KPU—and it elected Petro Symonenko as First Secretary.[15]

In February 2014, the party came out in firm opposition to the Euromaidan (pro-Ukrainian EU integration and anti-President Viktor Yanukovych protests) violence and identified the movement as a "coup" to overthrow the elected government and replace it with a pro-NATO regime, and in an open plea from the First Secretary, called for all communist and left-wing movements around the world to condemn the events as such.[19] The party did vote in favour of the impeachment of Yanukovych.[20]

On 1 July 2014 six MPs left the Communist Party faction in parliament, reducing it to 23 members.[30][31] A vote, supported by 232 MPs, on 22 July 2014 gave the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (the speaker of Ukraine's parliament) the power to dissolve a faction that has lost some of its members compared to the number it had while it was formed during the first parliamentary session after the previous election, pending a signature from President Petro Poroshenko.[27][32][33] Later that day Poroshenko signed this bill giving effect to this new parliamentary regulation.[27] The next day speaker (and former Acting President) Turchynov announced the party's impending dissolution and added to MPs "We only have to tolerate this party for another day".[27] The party's faction in parliament was indeed dissolved on 24 July 2014 by Turchynov.[32] The same day it was announced that at the time 308 criminal proceedings against members of the party had been opened.[34] Communists were accused of openly supporting the annexation of Crimea by Russia, supporting the creation of self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic and agitating for annexation of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to Russia.[34] The party leadership at the time stated its support for Ukrainian territorial integrity and excluded separatist dissenters from its membership.[13]

On 4 September the Kiev District Administrative Court indefinitely postponed the hearing about the ban of the party.[35]

In May 2015 laws that banned communist symbols (the so called "decommunization laws") came into effect in Ukraine, meaning that the party could not use communist symbols or sing the Soviet national hymn or "The Internationale".[8] In a 24 July 2015 decree based on these laws the Ukrainian Interior Ministry stripped the party of its right to participate in elections, and it stated that it was continuing the court actions (which started in July 2014) to end the registration of Ukraine’s communist parties.[9]

The party decided to take part in the October 2015 local elections as part of the umbrella party "Left Opposition [ru; zh]".[38] According to the Interior Ministry this was legal as long as the new party did not use communist symbols.[38] Other party members took part in this election as "Nova Derzhava".[13] The political party "Nova Derzhava" was established in 2012.[39] On 1 August 2015 it elected a new leader Oleh Melnyk.[39] Formally along with the Communist Party of Ukraine, it is also a member of the Left Opposition Association.[39]

Late 2015 19 local party leaders from the party's South and East Ukraine organisations resigned from the central committee to protest against repression of internal dissent they blamed on Symonenko.[13]

On 16 December 2015 the District Administrative Court in Kiev satisfied the claim of the Ministry of Justice and it banned the activities of the Communist Party.[11] This ban was criticised by John Dalhuisen of Amnesty International, who stated that the ban was "the same style of draconian measures used to stifle dissent” as used by the Soviet Union.[12] On 28 December 2015 the party appealed.[4] On 25 January 2016 the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine denied the party in the consideration of the cassation of the (16 December 2015) ban.[40] The court suspended the appeal for the time being until the Constitutional Court determines the legitimacy of the law on decommunization.[41] This resulted in the court's decision to ban the Communist Party of Ukraine did not come into force.[4] Nevertheless, the party appealed its ban at the European Court of Human Rights.[13] The April 2015 decommunization law does contains a norm that allows the Ministry of Justice to prohibit the Communist Party from participating in elections.[4] The attempts to ban the party never did forbid individual members of the party to take part in elections as an independent candidate.[42]

In January 2017, the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption stated that since the Communist Party of Ukraine is not officially banned, it must report on its property and finances.[4] Hence, the party still sends in its required financial reports and is still listed on the website of the Ministry of Justice and on the website of the Department of State Registration and Notary.[43] Due to the decommunization laws the party changed its logo and the name that is since being written in a shortened version.[4] In the summer of 2018 the parties website was closed by the police "due to the demonstration of communist symbols."[4] According to party leader Symonenko, the reason for the website closure was a photo on the website of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Volodymyr Shcherbytsky.[4]

On 28 November 2006 the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Law of Ukraine "About 1932-1933 Holodomor in Ukraine".[44] The first article of the document indicates "Holodomor is a genocide against the Ukrainian people".[44] The second article states that public denial of the crime is recognized as desecration of the memory of millions of victims, disparaging of Ukrainian people and is unlawful.[44] On 13 January 2010 the Kiev Appellate Court reviewed criminal case on the fact of committing a genocide (crime against humanity) and agree with the conclusions of the investigation that leadership of Bolshevik regime – Joseph Stalin and others – had purposely created such living conditions designed to physically eliminate a part of Ukrainian national group.[45] The court found guilty Stalin and others in directly committing the crime.[45] Less than four months after the event, on 5 May 2010 the Communist Party of Ukraine branch office in Zaporizhia Oblast established in Zaporizhia a monument of Stalin and triumphantly opened it involving press and the public.[46] Such unprecedented decision led to the fact that during the opening of the monument from the heat fainted three people and one woman died.[46] During those tragic events that accompanied the opening of the monument, representatives of the Communist party were hindering journalist activity and accompanying it with a foul language.[46]

No later than since 2006, the Communist Party of Ukraine office in Donetsk on regular basis provided material and logistical assistance to the separatist organization Donetsk Republic (banned in 2007) which with assistance of the Communist Party of Ukraine in tents of the Communist Party of Ukraine was spreading printed information materials of separatist orientation in authorship of the ideologist of Donetsk Internationalism Dmitriy Kornilov[47] as well as by collecting signatures for "independence of Donbass" agitated for violation of territorial integrity of Ukraine through seceding several oblasts of Ukraine from Ukraine and uniting them into one quasi state formation based on Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson "republics".[48] Even after the Donetsk Republic party was banned for separatism on 6 November 2007 by the Donetsk district administrative court on the suit of the Chief Justice Administration of Donetsk Oblast based on materials of the Security Service of Ukraine,[49] the Donetsk branch of Communists did not cease to assists separatists with its tents and printing capabilities periodically conducting joint campaigns with them.[48]

In its statute the Communist party claims that "on voluntary basis it unites citizens of Ukraine who are supporters of the Communist idea".[51] The party considers itself a successor of the Communist Party of Ukraine of the Soviet Union and calls itself a "battle detachment of RKP(b)–VKP(b)–KPSS"[51] The party claims that prohibition of that party in August 1991 was unlawful,[51] which was confirmed by the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on 27 December 2001. The party sets itself in an opposition to any government and seeks a full restoration of the socialist state in the country without any particular association with any other political parties.[51]

Political sphere. Liquidation of presidency as an institution, strengthening of democratic measures of state and public life; electoral legislation reform ensuring a proper share of representation of workers, peasants, intelligentsia, women, youth in Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and local government; introduction of practice to recall deputies and judges who received vote of no confidence; election of judges of prime level; filling with real meaning and proper financial support regional and local government; introduction in the country a system of public control; creation of labor group councils vested with powers to monitor economic activity of businesses; suppression of corruption, organized crime, particularly in the upper echelon of power; elimination of benefits and privileges for officials; federalization of Ukraine; comprehensive development of Ukrainian language and culture, granting Russian language the status of state language; changing of Ukraine's state symbol, lyrics and music of the State anthem.

Economic policy. Modernization and public control over economy, nationalization of strategic businesses; establishing a competitive state sector of economy, energy independence; reforms in Agro-Industrial Complex, Housing and Communal Services, etc; prohibition of private property.

Foreign policy. Non-aligned military status, independent foreign policy, active position on creation of a new European system of collective security, reform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, review international agreements with WTO and IMF, membership and active position in the CIS, Customs Union and Eurasian Economic Community of the Russian Federation, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The KPU was established as "the inheritor of the ideas and traditions of the KPU, as it existed until its banning in August 1991."[52] In general, the party has laid weight on nostalgia for the Soviet Union to gain votes.[52] In contrast to many parts of the former Soviet Union, where leftist conservatives have tried to win votes by promoting local nationalism, the KPU supports a form of Soviet nationalism,[52] considering the establishment of an independent Ukraine as illegal.[53] The party has remained loyal to the legacy of the Soviet Union.[54] In 1998, to celebrate the would-be 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union, the KPU published Historical Thesis, a text which painted a rosy picture of the former state.[54] The Soviet Union is barely criticized, and controversial events such as the Great Purge and Holodomor are not mentioned in the party press.[54] There are some who are favorable to Joseph Stalin's legacy, giving the impression that things "only began to go wrong with [Nikita] Khrushchev's 'adventurism'."[54] Despite all this, when the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) is criticized at all, the favored line is that the party and state lost their belief in key Leninist principles.[54]Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, "is still considered sacrosanct" by the party, and official pronouncements talk of the "Leninist Communist Party of Ukraine" and more precisely, that the KPU continues "speaking in the words of Lenin".[54]

The KPU believes that, since the West has developed into a post-industrial society, capitalism through globalization was actively "de-modernizing" Ukraine.[55] This was in their favor, since de-modernization would lead to the reestablishment of a dominant proletarian class.[55] As Vasyl Tereshchuk, a former Party theoretician expelled in 2005, noted, "People are surviving on what they accumulated in the years of Soviet power: that is, they are not yet a classic proletariat as they still have much to lose (a flat, a car, a dacha, etc.). But their full proletarianization will come sooner or later."[55] Secondly, the dissolution of the Soviet Union directly led to the reestablishment of class antagonism in society.[55] This antagonism led to the exploitation of the proletariat by "a comprador bourgeoisie [...] behind which stands world imperialism headed by the USA".[55] According to Symonenko, on this basis, there was no chance for a social democratic movement ever to develop in Ukraine.[55] The "softening of class antagonism in the West", which had led to the establishment of social democratic parties, "was only possible because the local working class, as part of the 'golden billion', lived 'as parasites on the labour of the countries of the world periphery' to which Ukraine was rapidly being consigned. Ukraine could not expect any 'lessening of class
antagonism, only the reverse."[56] Symonenko appreciates the economical aid and partnership with China, and calls to use Communist Party of China as the example, giving the country back to the working people, and "build our country into a strong country like China".[57][58]

The party, at least in the beginning, is best described as Soviet nationalist (nationalist in the sense that they are nostalgic for the Soviet Union).[59] As Yurii Solomatin, a member of parliament, noted in 2000; "we are Soviet communists; we are Soviet people; we are Soviet patriots".[59] The party continues speaking about the existence of a "Soviet people" and "Soviet homeland", and at the beginning, no concessions were given to local, Ukrainian nationalism.[59] There has been no talk of establishing a national communism unique to Ukraine, and the 1st KPU Congress even criticized the notion of establishing a unique "Ukrainian communism".[59] Instead, the KPU has opted promoting Ukraine as a "bi-cultural state".[59] At the 1st KPU Congress, Symonenko told the delegates that "'the interests, rights and specific traits of one nation above those of other nations and nationalities', and in which 'the Ukrainian language' should not be 'over'-privileged, but left alone to enjoy 'its natural development, purged of the imposed language of the diaspora. The Russian language, as the native language of half the population of Ukraine, [should be given] the status of a state language alongside Ukrainian."[60] Their views on nationalism is highly nostalgic; when the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP–CPSU), a loose organization of post-Soviet parties was formed, it was met with open arms.[60] However, when the Communist Party of the Russian Federation proposed in 1995, to transform the organization into a modern-day Comintern, the KPU opposed because of their Soviet nationalist views.[61]

In recent years their commitment to Soviet nationalism has been partially replaced with a vaguer East Slavic nationalism.[62] Wishing not to reestablish a union with Russia "'as a protectorate of the Russian bourgeoisie", "the Ukrainian Communists have rediscovered the natural link from Soviet to East Slavic or Eurasian nationalism in the supposed common 'economic civilization' and proclivity for collective labour of all the East Slavic peoples."[62] As noted in the party journal Communist, the "'Soviet man [...] did not emerge from nothing before him stood the courageous Slavic-Rusich, the labour-loving Ukrainian peasant, the self-sacrificing Cossack."[62] At the 4th KPU Congress, the party finally conceded that Ukraine would not join any particular union as long as it weakened the country's sovereignty.[63]

Because of these views, Symonenko has been referred to as an Ukrainophobe.[64] Symonenko made controversy in 2007 when he accused the Ukrainian nationalist figure Roman Shukhevych of collaborationism with the Nazi Germany, for which the Pechersk District Court of Kiev city declared Symonenko's statement as false and obligated Symonenko publicly to disprove the "myth", and pay all court fees.[65] These views are commonplace amongst Western Historians, linking Shukhevych to the Nachtigall Battalion.[66]

In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election the party won 13.18% of the national votes, and no constituencies (it had competed in 220 of the 225 constituencies[74]), and thus 32 seats.[75] The party did win about one and a half million more votes compared with the results of the previous election.[76] Independent candidate Oksana Kaletnyk joined the Communist parliamentary faction on 12 December 2012.[77] Importance of Oksana Kaletnyk joining Communists was due to parliamentary regulations on obtaining its own parliamentary factions which required to have at least one deputy who came to parliament by winning a constituency.[78]Oleh Tyahnybok tried to challenge the creation of Communist faction, but on 30 January 2013 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine declined his petition.[79] Kaletnyk left the faction (at her own request) on 29 May 2014.[80] The first ten members on the party list were: Petro Symonenko (MP), Petro Tsybenko (MP), Iryna Spirina (Head of Psychiatric Department (Dnipropetrovsk Medical Academy)), Spiridon Kilinkarov (MP), Oleksandr Prysyazhnyuk (unemployed), Ihor Aleksyeyev (MP), Ihor Kalyetnik (Head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine), Adam Martynyuk (1st deputy Chairman of parliament), Valentyn Matvyeyev (MP), Yevhen Marmazov (MP).